doubt a reference to the Spanish cus- tom of starting all important activities relatively late in the day. Well, here at Popo we were certainly keeping les heures espa gnoles, none of the guides showing a great deal of inclination to get out into the snow. I decided that they must know their mountain and must have realized that the good weather would be stable. (In the Alps, it rarely holds for an entire day, which is one of the reasons for the early start.) In any event, after a break- fast of tea, canned fruit salad, and bread, we left the hut at eight o'clock. The Las Cruces route up Popo is, essentially, one foot after the other. There is no mystery about it. The volcano is a cone, and the cone, plastered in snow and ice, rises at an average angle of thirty degrees- reasonably steep. One simply makes a track straight up until one gets to the top-at least, in theory. However, the first thing that struck me when I looked up the mountain was that it was fairly well covered with climbers -some going up and some coming down-but no one seemed to be getting to the summit. I filed this away as a curious fact and set off with Mimo and Rodolfo. It had been decided that I was to stay in the middle, while one or the other of them led up. After something like three-quarters of an hour, we stopped to put on our crampons. The snow was rather thick, but underneath was a hard surface of ice, which made the crampons a necessity. We trudged on, steadily gaining altitude, which one could pretty well measure by look- ing over at the summit of IztaccíhuatL At about sixteen thousand feet, the altitude began to catch up with me. I started playing those psychological games with myself which are famil- iar to every high-altitude climber. I would pick out a rock-say, fifty feet away-and promise myself that I would continue climbing until I reached it. After a while, I was reduced to counting steps-something else familiar to climbers at high altitudes. I would make an agreement with myself to go twenty steps-steps that Rodolfo or Mimo had made. If the steps were not even, then I felt entitled to break the agreement and quit after fifteen steps. At this point, my head was spin- ning, and I would plant the handle of my ice axe in the snow, bend over, and lean on it until things sorted them- selves out. I had an all but irresistible urge to sit down in the snow and go to sleep. My brother, who had climbed I( fl, I Popo some years earlier with a group from a mountaineering club at the University of Wisconsin, told me that he was sure he and the rest of the group fell asleep on their ice axes every fifteen steps or so. I remarked to Mimo that a short nap in the snow would be exceedingly nice, and he replied rather forcefully that it would not be exceed- ingly nice but a very good way to get frostbite. Above, either clouds or a plume of steam appeared to be billow- ing from the lip of the crater. Some climbers passed us on their way down, having stopped-for reasons that still didn't make sense to me- just below the crater. The lip was no more than thirty or forty feet above us-I had the feeling that a long arm stretch would take us to the top-when, much to my astonishment, Mimo said that the snow conditions had become "muy peligroso," and that we were going down. I didn't believe it, until I looked up. The loose snow had completely vanished, and the surface was now pure black ice-as hard as steel, and glinting like crocodile teeth. It was steeper than thirty degrees, and neither crampons nor ice axe could penetrate the surface. A slip might well have taken us to the bottom of the moun- tain, since there was nothing to stop a fall. Mimo said that these conditions were extremely rare, and that for that reason he had not brought up any ice pitons-steel screws that can be embedded in ice like this to hold a climbing rope. No wonder nobody had gone to the top! In compensation, he offered me a chilled can of grape juice he had brought up in his pack, and I gratefully drank it. We stopped for a few minutes to take in the fantastic view. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the whole high Aztec plain was visible below us. We headed down. Mirno ánd Ro- dolfo stopped to warn all the climbers behind us about the ice, and soon there was a full-scale retreat down the mountain. We reached the Las Cruces hut sometime after noon, to be greeted by Pedro, who had sorted out all our sleeping gear. Some picnickers had come up from the valley, and an enor- mous Mexican family was making tor- tillas on a portable stove and stuffing them with spiced meat. Mimo's tran- sistor w.as still tuned to la música dulce, and we left the hut to the strains of "What the World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love." A light cloud had settled itself on the summit of the vol- cano - JEREMY BERNSTEIN 123 GILT-f-DGf-D STOCKING STUFF[ t."" \'* ;5 À y -ø , - 0" . leather bound . dnd very N ew Yorker . with exclusive About Town telephone,and, address gUide. . thumb tabbed . pocket sized . distinctively styled Please end me _ copies of the pocket edltIon New Yorker DraT) for 1987, bound m leather, at $10.00, plus $1.00 shlppmg and handling. (New York residents please add sales tax.) Ndme Address City State Zip Make checks payable to The New Yorker and mall to: The New Yorker, P.O. Box 10850 Des Momes, Iowa 50336 86P68 MAKES YOU ALMOST 2" TAILER ./ \ ... " 1 SIZES: 5-11 WIDTHS: B-EEE FINE MEN'S SHOES -., - ! Looks just like ordinary shoes except hidden inside is a height increasing innermold. Choose from a wide selection of Elevators. including dress shoes. boots and casuals. Satisfaction guaranteed. Exceptionally comfortable. Call or write today for your FREE color catalog so you can look 2" taller in almost no time. TOLL FREE 1-800-343-3810 ELEVATORS@Ð RICHLEE SHOE COMPANY, DEPT. Y6DB P.O. Box 3566, Frederick, MD 21701 YOUR SOILED TIES 9 J YOUR WIDE TIES CLEANED \ NARRDWED It pays to refashion favor- ites. Like buying new ties - for a lot less' $6 00 Mm. 4 ties ea. Slim and Clean only $7 50 ea 116 East 27th St, N.Y. 10016 (212) 867-7676 Skilled tie crafters refm- ..- ish ties like brand new Restore bnghtness $3 00 Mm. 4 ties. ea MAIL ORDERS Add $200 -f'iec:... e...s@ Free folder Tips on Ties' GUAÇU FAt S , One of the 32 places where travetwith Questers ;: becomes a learning experience. , For Tour Directory write or can: . QUESTERS WORLDWIDE NATURE TOURS : Oept NYK, 257 Park Ave S; NY; NY 10010 (212)673 3120'